Activist investor says he won’t solicit votes against the merger after proxy advisers side with it

Carl Icahn no longer plans to solicit votes from Cigna Corp. shareholders against the health insurer’s $54 billion deal to buy Express Scripts Holding Co. after two proxy-advisory firms recommended shareholders support the deal, the billionaire activist investor said in a statement Monday.

Significant shareholder overlap between the two companies, which he initially hoped had decreased since the deal was announced, was also a factor in his decision, he said.